Sliding patio door alternatives?
cord12
| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
Seeking opinions about a patio sliding door replacement in climate zone 6. Requirements are energy efficient, significant glass area to let in natural light and a secure key-lock entry from the exterior. Are there patio doors that meet these requirements or should we just install a regular door adjacent to a triple pane fixed-glass window in the rough opening of the old patio door?
Thanks, David
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Replies
There are several sliding doors that meet all your requirements, if you are prepared to pay. A sliding door like this will typically cost triple the same quality fully glazed door and side light.
If it were mine, I'd prefer a regular 36" door that swings out of the way with much less effort than sliding a heavy patio door sideways. A regular door opening away from you also lets you do much of the opening while continuing to walk, whereas a patio door makes you halt in both directions. A fixed-glass triple pane window will be much warmer just inside of it than any double pane slider, and it doesn't need to go down to floor level to provide view.
I looked at swinging patio doors versus sliding doors. The better patio doors had 3 point latching. The sliding door I went with was a top-of-the line Marvin which is a great door however the locking is a simple single point catch.
You can get good sliding doors with triple pane glazing, but they are not cheap. I just had inline quote three very large sliding doors (over 12’ wide), and they were around $9,000 each. This is with 1-3/8” triple pane glazing.
It would be cheaper to put a glass swing door next to a full height picture window. You can also get “tilt and turn” doors which might be an option for you. I don’t think either option would give you the clean look of a sliding glass door though.
The closest option I can think of to a sliding glass door is to use a commerical-style strip window and integrate a swing door into one of the panels. You see this all the time on storefronts.
Bill
Thank you for the inputs. David